Heaven Now

We’re all addicts of one sort or another. Each of us is prone to some vice, large or small, which our logical mind tells us is not good for us, yet we go back again and again like a pig to the trough. It may be as socially innocent as staying up too late, or as deviant as S&M. It’s something we’re going to quit, tomorrow. And then tomorrow, we put it off to tomorrow’s tomorrow.

Some years ago a friend got me thinking about addiction as a natural, irresistible human condition. He had been a hard drinker, his marriage hung by a frayed thread, his career was on the rocks, his health in tatters. One day he assembled his collection of hard liquor on the kitchen counter and one by one poured the contents of each bottle down the sink.

“I cried like a baby”, he said, “because I loved each one so much. I hated them, but I loved them more.” My friend (happily married and professionally successful) has been clean and sober for decades now, but still struggles day by day.

We do those things that we do too much because we love them too much. Whether it’s losing sleep because we stay up and surf too late (count me guilty as charged), eating way too much junk (“comfort”) food, or snorting coke, nobody forces us to do these things. There is no gun to our heads.

The reality is that we scarf down the sixth slice of pizza because it tastes good and feels good. Nobody drags men into strip clubs – they go quite voluntarily. Problem gamblers don’t skulk into casinos, they walk in confidently and joyfully, because today is the day they’re going to hit the jackpot.

It’s all fine to tackle the drug problem with the slogan “Just say NO!”, but it’s not very practical. Telling hormone-crazed kids to vow chastity is a good thing, but not a proven sales pitch. The reality is that we all want to feel good, and we want to feel good now. We don’t engage in unwise behaviour because we have a death wish, but because we have a life wish. We want heaven, but right here, right now. Heaven Now.

There are no simple solutions, and every time we say “No” to Heaven Now it’s hard, sometimes brutally hard, and sometimes irresistibly hard. If we ever hope to lead healthy, productive, exemplary lives, we first have to be honest about that, and if we ever need to come alongside a struggling friend, we first need to understand that they’re not fighting against hell, but against Heaven Now.

As Tucker Max puts it, “The devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.”